The Dagger of Death
by Live.Laugh.Love.Play
Summary: *Takes place after Sara's death Nyssa returns looking for revenge. Oliver owns the company again with Ray Palmer's assistance. Thea never left, but someone else is coming. Oliver needs to decide if the city is worth saving.*
1. The Time For Mourning is Over

Car horns and the sound of rain hitting glass fill the air just like any other late night at the office. Except, Oliver Queen is not known for staying at Queen's Consolidated for longer than normal business hours. Oliver sits at his desk deep in thought remembering that night, and thinking about what the past year brought onto him and the people he loves. His mother is dead. Sara is dead. All because of the decisions Oliver made on the island. He sees himself in front of Shado and Sara, but their faces change to Thea and his mother, blood and tears cover their faces. His mother stands,

"Both my children will live."

"You have true courage…You did not pass that on to your son"

Oliver hears her last inhale, and Slade's sword go into her heart. Oliver looks up at him, but only sees himself. He is the only one to blame for the mourning that washed over this town and his family.

"Oliver...Oliver...Oliver!" Felicity says snapping him out of his haze. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah...Yeah just thinking…" He trails off.

"Last time you said that you isolated yourself from everyone for two weeks."

"What do you want Felicity? I am not in the mood to talk right now." Oliver starts to raise his voice.

"You've been in that mood for a while now. We need you, the city is literally tearing itself into pieces."

"The Arrow isn't needed any more S.C.P.D. can handle it."

"No they can't!" She says, starting to get frustrated. "Oliver, a man named Jonathan Reed a.k.a The Doc. He stole 'the chain reaction' a serum injected into the bloodstream that forces the lysosomes in the cells to not only digest the unwanted proteins, but the rest of the cell. In other words, the body will eat itself inside out, literally… That sounded so much worse in my head…"

"Felicity!"

"Right, anyway, I don't know what he plans on doing with it, but he already put it out on the street. People's cells are literally eating each other. Their bodies' start to shake that is uncontrollable until the serum reaches the heart and they die."

"Ok. Why do you need me then? Diggle can handle it."

"Dig and Roy said they need you." She said handing the phone over to him.

"Oliver, I need you down here! Now!" He hears Diggle's voice and gunshots in the background. "Shit! I got to go Roy is about to…" The sound stops and the signal goes dead.

"Fine. But this is the one time! Let's go!"

Oliver and Felicity leave Queen's Consolidated and make their way back to the club. Going down the stairs, Oliver states, "Felicity do what you can to track this guy cell phone records, anything, and get me an address so I can go help Dig…" He stops dead in his tracks and sees Dig and Roy perfectly fine sitting on the table. Not a scratch.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Oliver said, more frustrated than before.

"Don't blame them, it was my idea," Squeaks Felicity's voice from behind him. "You needed to get out of there and anyway there is a guy named Jonathan Reed who did steal 'The Chain Reaction.'" Oliver turns around and starts right back up the stairs. Diggle is right behind him.

"Where are you going? We need you down there; the city needs you down there, fighting for the people."

"No one needs my help! I can't do anything anymore. I can't help anyone anymore!" Oliver screamed with frustration.

"What about Thea, Felicity, Laurel, and Roy huh? Or, what about all the innocent people who are getting killed just because you don't want to get off your royal ass and do something about it. You need to face reality, you are not the only one who has lost people they cared and loved about. There are people out there right now losing their families because you will never have enough time to mope."

"Then why can't you do it!"

"Because I am not the Arrow! I am not the person people look up to and I am not the one who promised this city that I will save it from the evil and corruption!"Diggle reminds him as Oliver falls to the ground and begins to sob. Diggle slides down next to Oliver.

"How can I save a city when I can't save my family?" He lets out in between sobs. Oliver flashes back and sees nothing but his sister and mother, again. Her body cold on the ground with Slade over her, promising Oliver that he is not done destroying his life. The scenery changes he is holding his bow aimed at Ivo. When Slade walked up behind him. When Slade found out about Shado. When Slade promised him that his life will burn in hell. When Slade showed emotion for the first time. Oliver sees his eyes tear, but the anger on his face never went away.

"You know what hurts the most that it was you. I trusted you. It was you the whole time! You are the reason Shado, the only one who I loved, is dead. It's all your fault!" Slade screamed at Oliver. A tear rolled off Oliver's face bringing him back to the stairway with Diggle next to him.

"If I can't beat him Dig; I can't help anyone. He changed right in front of me, Dig. I put the Mirakuru into him. It is all my fault that everyone is dying."

Diggle reassures him, "You cannot change what happened between you two in the past, but we can fix this city, and take down that son of a bitch." Diggle stands up. He offers his hand to Oliver. Oliver accepts. They both go down the stairs, where Roy and Felicity inconspicuously walk away from the bottom of the stairs as if there were not listening in.

"Felicity what do you have on Jonathan Reed?"Olive says giving Felicity a glare.

"Does this mean I still keep my job? Right...He's a bio-medical engineer, he already injected the serum into a few dozen people, but not sure how yet. Where are you going?"

"Out. I need to visit someone."

* * *

"Hello Detective, there is a man named Jonathan Reed a.k.a The Doc, what do you know about him?" Oliver asked.

"He sent multiple people to the hospital already, once you're injected, your toast. No one found a cure yet. The bodies are piling up, high. He was declared mentally insane five years ago. He claimed that he solved the world's problems babbling about creating world peace. His company was shut down when they found C-4 lining the entire building ready to blow at any moment." Lance informed.

"Thanks. I'll be in contact."

"You know… It's good to have the arrow back, maybe some good will finally come to this damn city."


	2. Doctor Reed

Felicity, Roy, Diggle and Oliver all sit in silence, waiting for any information on Jonathan Reed and how to hunt him down. The ding sound from the computer echoes through the air and everyone's head turns to see what the computer knows.

"Felicity what do you have?" Oliver stands up and walks over to her.

"Umm, we either have a problem or the computer is wrong and I don't think the computer is wrong," she says with worry in her voice.

"What is it?!" Roy starts to raise his voice.

"I GPS tracked Reed and it says he is here…"

"What do you mean here?" Diggle asks uneasy. The screen changes from a series of jumbled numbers to the live feed from the security camera that is at the front door of the club. It shows a man in a lab coat and a surgical mask tapping the security camera before the feed goes dead. Felicity turns, and Oliver and Roy are already changed and going up the stairs.

"Felicity is Thea up there?" Dig asks.

"No, but it looks like she will be here within the next few minutes."

"I'm going to stop Thea before she gets here; let me know if they need me. I will be back as fast as I can," and with that Felicity is the only one left in the Arrow Cave.

* * *

"Hello there," says the man dressed like a doctor, coming in from the front door, "You know they should really start to lock their doors if they don't want us in here, but it looks like our next patient has arrived boys. The Arrow, how great is it to finally meet you."

"I don't think so Reed," Oliver snaps back.

"That is no way to speak to your doctor, is it? Especially when he knows how to help all the sick people of the world," Reed says.

"What do you want Reed?" Roy asks.

"Nothing really, all I want is for my patients to get better, especially when only I know how to make world peace."

"Why do keep saying that you can cure everyone in the world?" Roy says enraged.

"Because I can fix the world's problems with 'The Chain Reaction'"

"How do you plan on doing that? If you are letting it out on the street?" Oliver asks

"Did you know that 12 people die in Africa every minute? Either from unknown causes or because they don't know the cure. I can save all those people along with everyone else in the world." Reed informs.

"How?!" Roy says, now frustrated.

"You clearly do not deserve to know if you haven't figured it out yet…"

Oliver's face goes white, "You plan on killing everyone, don't you?"

"I am not going to kill them, I just plan on saving the world by getting rid of all the people who destroyed it, and I am going to begin with the Arrow." Reed informs them.

"Oliver," he hears Felicity through his Bluetooth, "Reed had a wife, her name was Karen, and she died in the Congo while working with Doctors Without Borders. She died because they couldn't find the cure in time"

"That's not how you save the world Reed. Would Karen really want you to do this?" Oliver asks Reed.

"Yes she would. It is already too late, half of the Glades is already injected and nothing can help them. Oh and I almost forgot, we started with about 2 million copies that are being shipped nation wide. More is coming, to finish off the rest."

"Felicity…." Oliver growls.

"I'm already on it. I called Lance and trying to get in touch with my friend from CIA"

Oliver looks up and sees Reed with two vials in his hand. One of his men opens a briefcase and takes out a syringe. Oliver raises his bow and shoots a vial out of his hand. Roy then shoots the syringe. Reed caught off guard ducks for safety, while Roy and Olive run for the shadows.

"Ah ha ha ha old school I can see. I like it." Reed snickers.

His men surround him with their weapons ready. An arrow slices the air and drives through the shoulder of the biggest grunt.

"Arrow. You can't beat us it is eight against two" Reed reminds him.

"I beg to differ," says an uncertain and shaky voice form the staircase. Felicity's face comes into view holding one of Dig's extra guns.

"Shit! Roy, you get Reed I'll get Felicity." Oliver explains the plan to Roy.

A gunshot goes off and one bodyguard falls cold to the ground. A firefight starts to break out. Oliver runs to help Felicity, while Roy goes after Reed. Roy is slowly taking one at a time out, but people start dying that he isn't killing. He looks over to find Diggle, gun in hand.

"Took you long enough." Roy looks over at Dig and they both finish them off. Oliver finally reaches Felicity and pulls her behind the bar.

"I...I...I don't know what happened, I didn't think I pulled the trigger, but...but he's dead. Did I kill him?" Confusion and worry wipe over her face.

"I don't know. Are you ok?" Oliver asks her.

"I...I think so…" She stutters.

"I'll be right back," Oliver kisses her then leaves to help Roy. He moves cautiously over to find Roy and Diggle over Reed. Gun and arrow aimed at his head.

"Where is 'The Chain Reaction?" Oliver says while raising his bow.

"You will never find it, nor will I tell you where it is." Reed teases. Oliver shoots an arrow into his shoulder and starts to pull.

"Are you sure you won't tell us?"

"Ha ha ha ha, I already saved the world. Go ahead torture me, kill me, it doesn't matter, it can't be stopped."

Oliver rips the arrow out and stabs it right into the other shoulder.

"OK I'll give you a hint. The Glades were first, but other's more greedy must go next," Reed warns. " You might want to hurry time is running out." Reed take the second vial he had, opens it, and drinks it. His body begins to shake and all three of them know that it no more use. The have a bigger problem now. Oliver runs over to Felicity.

"Are you sure you're ok?" He asks and she nods "What were you thinking!?"

"I don't really know…" She blushed and he lifted her head, so he was looking into her eyes. Tears were streaming down her face and her eyes were red and puffy. "I...I killed him…"

"Actually, that would be me" Diggle interjected. "I took the shot because I knew you wouldn't be able to and you would be dead," Diggle reassured her. She mouthed 'thank you' to Dig and hugged Oliver.

Roy broke the silence, "Hey I hate to break up this party, but we kinda have something out there that doesn't have a cure and its kinda going to kill everyone who is injected." Oliver nods at Roy and they all go downstairs. They all stop at the bottom of the stairs to see Nyssa and members of the league aiming at them.


	3. Return of The League

"Oh Shit!" Roy whispers while they all stand frozen in place.

"Where is he?" Nyssa questions.

"Who are you talking about?" Felicity asks.

"Malcolm Merlyn. Where is he?" She begins to raise her voice.

"No idea. He disappeared after Sara's death," Oliver says.

"You let him get away?" Nyssa starts to move forward with the arrow tip inching closer to Oliver's throat. Each member of the league followed Nyssa, and each arrow pointed at someone's neck.

"Woah! Woah! What did he do?" Roy says moving his head as the tip closes in. Nyssa looked at all of them. They all looked confused as to why she was on this witch hunt.

"You really don't know...He killed Sara," Nyssa says starting to tear up, but still holding her bow firmly.

"WHAT?! Laurel exclaims as she walks down the back stairs. While, Oliver falls down to his knees. The devastation that once covered all of them for weeks returned in a matter of seconds. Anger washes over Laurel's face and she charges for Nyssa. Diggle runs past the assassins and holds her back. "Let go of me!" she screams as tears roll down her face. Diggle keeps her back, while she continues to struggle, until she drops down to the floor. "No….no…." her voice trails off into a complete sob. Nyssa lowers her bow and the rest of the league follows.

Nyssa turns to Oliver, "I'm sorry Oliver, he deserves death. He went against the league and me!"

"He deserves a lot more than death," Oliver says under his breath.

"We must hunt him. We are going to go search this city from top to bottom and tear it apart if we have to," Nyssa plans. Roy starts to walk back up the stairs and not listening to Nyssa's plan.

"We need to find him, but I think he left the city. He would know Sterling is the first place you would look Nyssa...Roy where are you going, we need to catch Malcolm," Oliver says.

"No, you want to catch Malcolm. What we NEED to do is stop The Chain Reaction and I am going to find Thea before it gets to her too!" Roy snaps back quickly as he continues up the stairs not looking back. Oliver's face changes instantaneously. He forgot about The Chain Reaction and didn't even think about Thea.

Oliver breaths. Thinks for a second, and then says, "Nyssa he probably left Sterling; start looking outside the city. We need to stop The Chain Reaction first, and then we will help you."

"Fine, but Oliver… if we find that Malcolm is in the city; you will be dead," The league leaves and begins their search.

Oliver says to himself, "And that's a risk I have to take."

* * *

"Glad to see you haven't gotten infected yet," Lance says. Oliver just looks at him. Lance breaks the silence, "Have you found Reed yet?"

"He is no help, there is no cure, but I am bringing a sample to my friends in Central City. They said they can help try to find something," Oliver informs.

"OK we are trying to isolate the areas that are known to be infected."

"OK. Lance, can you watch the city while I leave for a while?" Oliver asks.

Lance is confused, and asks, "Why are you leaving at a time like this? The city needs your help."

"I need to stop it from spreading to outside the city," Oliver says as he walks to the darkness.

* * *

Oliver walks back into the club and sees Diggle, "Dig, is there anyway you can see if A.R.G.U.S will help search all transportation services for it?"

"Yeah, I'm calling now!"

Oliver turns toward Felicity. They haven't talked since their kiss, when Reed stormed the club looking to inject Oliver with The Chain Reaction.

"You need to go straight home and do not leave. Make sure you do not touch anyone, and call Ray and make sure he knows too! Now GO!" Oliver demanded. Ray has been standing in as CEO at Queen Consolidated for Oliver for the past few weeks.

"But… can we just talk for a minute?"

"Just go! I need to go stop the rest of this before it gets worse," he grabs her shoulders and looks into her eyes, "You NEED to stay safe, I can't lose anyone else." She nods and starts to go home. After Felicity leaves, Oliver debriefs Diggle about his plan. Oliver leaves and heads toward Sterling Train Station.

* * *

Felicity decides to stop by Ray's apartment and warn him in person about The Chain Reaction. She walks into the elevator and pushes the level three button. In the minute and thirty second ride, she her mind slips away to what happened earlier at the club with Oliver. When he kissed her. His lips gently touched her's. In that quick moment she felt invincible. She then thought about the way Oliver looked when he found out Malcolm murdered Sara. Heartbroken. The bell of the elevator dung, signaling that she reached her level. The doors open and she walks to her left still thinking about Oliver. Maybe he kissed her because they could have died. He still seemed to be in love Sara. She stops in front of the door that had a gold placard with 211 on it. Felicity stands there for a moment remembering Ray a few days ago at the office. He flirted with her. It was harmless, but she hadn't flirted in a while, especially with Oliver. Her relationship with Oliver is complicated. However, with Ray she feels happy and important; never second, or even third to Sara or Laurel. She smiles at the thought of Ray and she knocks on the door. The door opens, and a tall, brown haired, very attractive man stands in the doorway. He is simply wearing a white t-shirt that fit him perfectly; it was slightly loose, but out softly outlined his muscles. He wore medium wash, straight leg jeans. Ray was smiling and greeted her with the perfect answer, "Hey!"

"Hi Ray… umm can I talk to you?" Felicity says.

"Yeah sure, come on in," he says gesturing inside.

"So… there's something called The Chain Reaction…"She begins.

"...and there is no cure and it's spreading," Ray finishes.

Felicity looks at him confused, "Yeah. How did you know… never mind that's not important you…"

"Need to stay home? So should you. Why did you come all the way over here when you could have called?" He asks. Felicity shrugs her shoulders. She didn't think about it. Why didn't she just call? She has no justification for coming in person, besides wanting to see him. "You can stay here till this is over. I would not be able to forgive myself if you get injected walking home after coming here to tell me to stay home," Ray looks at her with a very concerned face.

"I guess, I just have to call my boss and say I'm sick," She says as she smiles.


	4. Mixed Feelings

Roy turns the corner and catches Thea.

"Are you alright?" He asks her in a panic. He was breathing heavy and heart pounding. Roy just ran over from the club to warn Thea about the Chain Reaction and to get her to safety.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but you aren't. What is going on Roy?" Thea said grabbing him and helping him catch his breath.

"There is a weapon… a biological weapon called the Chain Reaction created by some psycho calls himself the doctor… we need to get out of here now! Over half of the Glades is inflected."

"What are you talking about?"

"Thea we need to go now!" Roy says grabbing her arm.

"But what about the other people, we need to help them too," Thea jerks back her arm.

"You don't understand Thea, there is no cure for this thing, you will die."

"We still need to warn the people," Thea says as she starts to walk away, "Fine Thea, we can send out a video message airing live on all devices or something we just need to get back to your loft now!" Roy said leading Thea.

* * *

Oliver made his way to the train station,

A static mumble came over the intercom, "Train 649 to New York is departing now on track 4."

"Shit, New York is the biggest hub it has to be on that train," Oliver says to himself running down the stairs. The train was already moving and picking up speed, fast. It was about two feet away from the end of the platform. Oliver began sprinting, to catch the train. He was getting closer and closer with every step, but he was running out of platform. He was forced to jump. He was in mid air knowing he would not make the jump. He was falling- fast. He reached back and grabbed his bow and shot an arrow with a wire. It attached to the light of the car. Oliver slowly pulled himself up onto the back of the train car. He made his way to the baggage car. Until he heard gun shots. Oliver turned and hid behind a luggage rack.

"He was a genius," a grunt said.

"He was trying to kill people."

"He was trying to rid the world of evil as I will do by getting rid of you. I will bring the world back to the natural state it was made to be in."

"He was killing innocent people," Oliver shouted from behind the rack, while keeping an eye on the grunt and getting his arrow ready. He pulls back fast, and he steps into the open, shoots the grunt, then moves back behind the rack. The arrow pierced through the air and sliced through his shoulder like a dart hitting a dart board. The grunt fell to the ground holding his shoulder. He sat for some time screaming in agony. Then he tried to prop himself up against the wall.

"You are just like me … you are a killer," He said spitting towards Oliver. With that Oliver punched him square in the nose and knocked him unconscious.

"I will never be like you," Oliver said to the unresponsive man and then continued to look for the rest of the Chain Reaction. In the corner of the luggage car he saw a wooden crate with the words fragile- this side up. He opened the crate and saw thousands and thousands of vials labeled "CR".

* * *

Laurel walks into the police station looking for her father. She knocked on his door.

"Daddy?"

"Laurel, perfect just the person I wanted to see. I think I have a lead on who killed Sara…"

"Daddy," She said with her bottom lip trembling.

Lance continued, "It took me a while, but he messed up and I was there to find him.

"Daddy!" Laurel raised her voice and her eyes were filling up with tears, "I...I already know who killed Sara… it was Malcolm Merlyn" She could not keep the tears in anymore. They started to rush down her face ruining any makeup she had on. Lance was still frozen. He lost the past six months worth of work because the killer never screwed up. It was always Merlyn. Laurel started to walk over, trying to comfort her father.

"Get Out!" Lance lashed out with anger and frustration.

"But Daddy…"

"I said get out!" He yelled getting louder. Laurel left crying, but angry. She went to the club and found Diggle.

"Where is Oliver we need to find Merlyn."

"Laurel, Oliver already said it, we need to destroy the Chain Reaction, then we can find Merlyn."

"Merlyn is a threat to everyone," She fired back.

"The league is already looking for him," Dig responds.

"Fine, I will look for him myself," she said turning her back toward Diggle.

"Laurel, you WILL get killed," Diggle warned her.

"I have been training…"

"But he is a trained assassin," he reminded her.

"I at least have to try," she said grabbing her sister's clothes and weapons and walked up the stairs.

* * *

Felicity knew it was safe at Ray's apartment, but she was still unsure about how she felt for Oliver. Her and Ray talked the entire time since she got there. They created a program that synced the electrical impulses in the brain with an unmanned suit. The suit then would reflect the actions that the brain demands.

"So now all we have to do is get it to work," Ray said confidently, then his smile went away, "This may be impossible."

"But you are one of the smartest men I know. I know you can do this," She said rubbing his shoulders. She know it was complicated between her and Oliver, but Ray is amazing too. She did this all the time debating who would be better, who to choose. Oliver is smart, dangerous, extremely attractive, but kind. Ray is smart,dangerous in a computer hacking type of way, extremely attractive, kind and he spoke her language. He understood what she is talking about when she narrates hacking into something. However, her and Oliver have history. He also loved Sarah and now that she is gone, Oliver will do whatever it takes to take down Malcolm Merlyn. That scares her; he never stops until it is finished. Her heart and head are in different places, but she needs to make a choice.


End file.
